management dissertation

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

This dissertation discusses and undertakes an analysis of some data gathered on Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility within organizations in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods Industry. The environmental social responsibility activities to be looked at within the selected companies are their water usage level, emissions, waste produced and total energy used with regard to being aware of environmental concerns. In this chapter, the aim and objectives of the study are outlined and a brief introduction is furnished.

1.1 BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW OF STUDY

In recent times, there has been much debate about whether corporations should be socially responsible or not and also the extent to which they should be responsible. With the global recession at the moment, the future years will show if CSR has been taking on by corporations or if it is, as critics say, merely a marketing stunt designed to make their business attractive (The Independent, 2009).

The phrase social responsibility is often hard to pin down because of the fact that there are several schools of thought concerning this notion. Milton Friedman questions if companies are required to take responsibility for social issues (Kok et al., 2001, p. 286). He stressed that the sole social responsibility of any organization is to boost its profits through legal ways and that donating an organization's funds to the society is harmful to the organization as this might reduce the organization's profit or cause an increase in product price or, in exceptional cases, have both effects (Pinkston and Carroll, 1996). Some researchers on the other hand are of the opinion that because of the ever changing competitive environment in which businesses are carried out, it is essential that organizations incorporate some sort of Corporate Social Responsibility standard that will help foster its sustainability in the environment. Boynton (2002) asserts that social responsibility is “a value that specifies that every situation - from family to firm- is responsible for its members' conduct and can be held accountable for its actions”. This research work supports the notion that organizations should continually engage in corporate social responsibility activities; therefore, as a conscious strategy, corporations must endeavour to incorporate environmental CSR in their diverse functions and operations.

Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) also known as Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industries focus on the production of consumable goods which people require from day to day. Fast Moving Consumer Goods can be said to be “low price items that are used with a single or limited number of consumptions” (Baron et al., 1991). Examples of FMCG or CPG products are food and beverages, footwear, clothing products, tobacco and other general products. The FMCG or CPG industry is an umbrella for wholesale and retail consumer goods producing companies. A number of companies function within this industry: examples are Nestle, Procter and Gamble, Pfizer, Reckitt Benkiser, British American Tobacco, Cadbury and Smithkline just to mention a few.

According to Jarvis (2003), business organizations endeavour to maximise profits as much as they can. Fast-moving consumer goods companies cannot therefore be left out in the quest for profit maximisation as the goods they produce are sold to consumers in order to make some sort of gain. FMCG companies provide humans with day to day products they require and as such one of their responsibilities is to ensure that the manufactured products meet the required quality standard. In manufacturing their products, some FMCG companies make use of some natural resources such as water, wood, soil etc., and sophisticated machineries which in some way affect the environment. Making use of the earth's natural resources without any provision for replacing the resources leads to depletion, while emissions from machineries pollute the environment.

Corporations implement CSR activities because they hope they will give them a competitive advantage over their rivals. Branco and Rodigues (2006) assert that CSR offers internal and external gains. The benefits are referred to as internal if engaging in social responsibility activities helps a corporation build, develop and manage its wealth and abilities, for instance: corporate culture and expertise. External benefits, on the other, are those linked to a corporation's status, staff awareness and culture; these are essential indescribable assets which, though hard to easily replace or duplicate, can be developed or trashed depending on whether a corporation is socially responsible or otherwise. Moreover, because companies take from the environment directly or indirectly, it is their responsibility to ensure that the environment and society at large, and not only the stakeholders, benefit from some kind of social responsibility activities set up by the companies (Stoner and Wankel, 1988).

Speaking of the FMCG industry in United Kingdom, Bourlakis and Weightman (2004) assert that the industry, which includes the food and grocery sector, contributes immensely to the country's economy as it provides employment to over 3.2 million people. This figure accounts for close to 17% of the country's total workforce. The same authors also mention that the FMCG industry accounts for over £130 billion of consumer spending yielding, representing over 9% of the GDP.

1.2 THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR

The British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown, declares that “…for this government manufacturing not only has been, but remains and will always be, critical to the success of the British economy…” (BIS, 2008). The United Kingdom is the 6th largest manufacturing country in the world (See appendix 1 for details). It provides the economy with about £150billion per annum. The country's productivity has increased by about 50% since 1997. The United Kingdom attracts “more foreign direct investment than any country apart from the USA” (BIS, 2009). In UK, manufacturing accounts for 13% of the GDP; also, between 1997 and 2004, the average labour productivity grew by 4% over the United States, 5% above France and also 15% over Germany. The figure below shows a graph of the growth in productivity.

Sheldon's study on ‘social responsibility of management' indicates that industries exist with the aim of servicing the society (Sheldon, 1923). The developments which various industries have made lately show that there is a link between the society and the industry. It can therefore be said that the purpose of creating industries is so that the society can benefit from it as well as sustain it. Sen (1999) observes that “as people who live - in a broad sense - together, we cannot escape the thought that the terrible occurrences that we see around us are quintessentially our problems. They are our responsibility - whether or not they are also anyone else's'” (Sen, 1999). The manufacturing sector is very huge and includes a range of industries such as: Aerospace, Biotechnology, Chemical, Food and beverages, Pharmaceuticals etc. The FMCG industry is one of the sub industries within the manufacturing sector. They sometimes face a lot of problems and as such struggle with criticisms from stakeholders on social responsibility matters even though they have functional CSR agendas.

From the size of the British manufacturing industry, it is fair to say that it uses a huge amount of energy compared to the rest of the European Union.

1.3 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

From looking at FMCG Company's website and their social responsibility/sustainability reporting materials, it will be seen that they engage in corporate social responsibility at different levels. Looking closely at FMCG companies within the United Kingdom, it will be seen that almost all of them if not all, consider corporate social responsibility and its effect on their business operations particularly as it pertains to their corporate image, competitive advantage and even their finances. Davis (1973) in his work asserts that engaging in corporate social responsibility can improve an organization's finances and image.

1.4 AIM OF PROJECT

The aim of the project is to contribute to the body of empirical data in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility by gathering information that will help in the analysis of environmental corporate social responsibility within organizations in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods industry. The findings of this research should provide managers and the academic world some more information in the area of Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility.

1.5 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The main objective of this study on the analysis of data gathered on environmental corporate social responsibility in some organizations in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods Industry is to critically look at the steps the corporations take in being environmentally responsible and also how they measure the progress.

Also, this dissertation will be attempt to:

Ø To analyse the data from selected FMCG companies relating to their environmental CSR practices

§ to identify the indicator/metrics used by the companies to benchmark their performance on environmental CSR in their organizations;

Ø To draw some conclusions and make some recommendations about the state of environmental CSR in the selected organizations.

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The FMCG industry is very large and as such it may not be feasible for the researcher to report on all the companies in the industry bearing in mind the limitation of time and adequate resources. Therefore the scope of this study will be limited to environmental corporate social responsibility in selected FMCG companies. The study will take a look at the environmental corporate social activities they have embarked on with respect to water usage reduction, CO2 emission reduction, reduction of waste produced, and total energy usage of each of the companies.

Owing to lack of time and resources, the researcher will not be able to conduct a survey of environment corporate social responsibility in all UK-based fast moving consumer goods companies. It is worth noting though that a lot of them carry out environmental corporate social responsibility activities and also report on them using indices to which some of them are benchmarked.

1.7 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION

This study is structured into five chapters. Chapter one provides an introduction/background to the research study, together with a brief introduction of the sector and industry. Chapter two contains the literature review; it comprehensively and critically reviews previous work done in this research area. Chapter three highlights the research design and data collection process employed by the researcher. Chapter four contains an analysis of the data gathered together. Some findings and discussions of the research area are also furnished. The final chapter, chapter five, contains some recommendations and conclusions based on the findings in the course of carrying out this dissertation.

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Corporate Social Responsibility has progressed from an irrelevant and often discriminated concept to one that is today well-known and established in businesses round the globe (Lee, 2008). Corporate Social Responsibility can be thought of as an umbrella phrase that takes into consideration the various ways and means a corporation embarks on in trying to act ethically and morally. In the last couple of decades, CSR has become widely well-known (Campbell, 2007). According to some researchers, the first book on CSR was written in 1953 by Howard Bowen, with the title: Responsibilities of the Businessman (Carroll, 1979; Kantanen, 2005).

Defining Corporate Social Responsibility can prove to be a complex task as it has varied meanings to different people. This is due to the fact that there is no agreed definition and as such organizations that are meticulous in their goals of incorporating CSR activities into their businesses are faced with compound problems. Because of how complex CSR is, it is hard to provide a definition. Stakeholders therefore make use of different definitions that are in line with their business operations, goals and aims. The definitions are often also related to the sizes of the corporations and how they regard their officers who are responsible for CSR activities within their organisations. Thus there is no agreed definition of CSR, because different corporations translate it to suit them depending on their state of affairs (MacLagan, 1999: Campbell, 2007: Garriga & Mele, 2004). Bowen (1953) defines corporate social responsibility as “… the obligations of businessmen to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society”. Manakkalathil and Rudolf (1995) explain CSR as “the duty of organizations to conduct their business in a manner that respects the rights of individuals and promotes human welfare”. It is quite a weak explanation which makes it somewhat tough to actualize. Aguilera et al. (2007) emphasize that corporations should not border their CSR activities on stipulated legislation regarding such issues but should also make provision for activities not stipulated in any legislation they adhere to. Aguilera et al. (2007) assert that “corporate social responsibility is a company's considerations of and response to issues beyond the narrow economic, technical and legal requirements of the company to accomplish social and environmental benefits along with traditional economic gains”. Carroll (1991) states that CSR consists of four aspects: legal, economic, ethical and philanthropic (discretionary) responsibility (See Appendix 1). Carroll (1991) argued that for a corporation striving to be seen as good within the society, all four aspects should be fulfilled. Carroll (1991) cites renowned economists Milton Friedman's assertion in trying to explain the relationship of the four aspects. On Friedman's part, he was only interested in the first three parts of CSR stating that corporations exist “to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of society, both those embodied in the law and those embodied in ethical custom” (Carroll, 1991) and he totally objected to the philanthropic aspect saying “the business of business is business”. In saying this, he meant that the usual economic standpoint only acknowledges legal, ethical and economic responsibility as a crucial principle while taking part in altruistic activities do not yield incentives for corporations. Levitt (1958) has a different approach to the CSR issue called the functional theory which considers CSR as ethically neutral. Corporations are considered to have particular tasks or organizational codes that communicate their position in the society. Corporations are expected to fulfil their social responsibilities by conforming to existing legal frameworks, as the onus of determining social good is the responsibility of the state and not that of the corporations. The reliability and character of an organization is in its sensitivity to varying conditions and demand. Organizations that react positively to financial and other varying issues will thrive, while those that do not respond adequately will die. Consequently, if the immediate situation requires that corporations be “socially responsible” then the corporations must endeavour to be so. Davis (1960) implies that social responsibility pertains to corporations' “decisions and actions taken for reasons at least partially beyond the firm's direct economic or technical interest”. Eells and Walton (1961) debate the meaning of CSR and say that it pertains to the “problems that arise when corporate enterprise casts its shadow on the social scene, and the ethical principles that ought to govern the relationship between the corporation and society”.

Deakin and Hobbs (2007) assert that corporations that go ahead and carry out CSR activities which are over the minimum legal requirements stand to benefit immensely. Margolis and Walsh (2003) in the research they conducted found that most corporations, however, only focus on particular aspects of CSR: mainly the economic aspect and try to shy away from the social and environmental aspects.

2.1.1 STAKEHOLDER THEORY OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The most spoken about theory of corporate social responsibility is the stakeholder theory. Freeman (1984) explains the basic concepts and attributes of stakeholder management in his booked entitled Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. He defines stakeholders to be ‘‘groups and individuals who can affect, or are affected by, the achievement of an organization's mission” (Freeman, 1984) or otherwise regarded as ‘‘those groups who have a stake in or a claim on the firm'' (Evan and Freeman, 1988). Freeman (2004) regards stakeholders as “those groups who are vital to the survival and success of the corporation”. Freeman explains that not only the owners of a corporation have genuine concerns about it but also persons and or groups of persons that might be affected or can possibly have an effect on the corporation's doings and as such these groups of people have the right to be considered in any decision making process within the corporation. Kaler (2006) on the other hand refers to the stakeholder theory that supports the notion that corporations should be socially responsible. This theory states that “the shareholder's value is boosted through employee commitment, customer loyalty, contractor cooperation and immense support from the community amongst other things. Some researchers are also of the opinion that the performance of organizations can be attributed to their strategies in trade and non-trade environments” (Baron, 2000). Freeman and Evan (1990) assert that corporations that embark on social responsibility activities often times do it because they trust that their managers are capable of boosting the corporations' effectiveness in taking action regarding demands from external sources by handling and meeting the requests of the diverse shareholders.

Stakeholder theory can be said to be a managerial activity because it expresses and directs how managers function (Freeman et al. 2006). In analyzing stakeholder theory, Donaldson and Preston (1995) proposed ethical guidelines for considering and selecting stakeholders. They made reference to this as being “instrumental” in the sense that when corporations manage their stakeholder activities accordingly, their performance will improve tremendously in relation to their stability, growth and profitability. According to Freeman (1994), the aim of stakeholder theory is conveyed in two key questions and the first is determining what the function of the firm is. This influences managers to convey the feeling of importance built within the corporation and also display activities that pull together all the major stakeholders. This propels the corporation forward and makes it possible for it to produce outstanding performance, instituted with respect to its function and economic performance in the open market. The second question asked by the stakeholder theory deals with the sort of responsibility owed to the stakeholders by the managers. This motivates the managers to convey the means they take in conducting their businesses and particularly the kind of relationship they yearn for and have to build with their stakeholders in order to realize their purpose (Friedman and Miles, 2006).

The stakeholder theory concept can be further broken down into: normative stakeholder theory, which hinges on theories of how managers and sometimes stakeholders are supposed to behave, and also how they are supposed to view the beliefs of the corporation as they pertain to its ethical ethos (Friedman and Miles, 2006), and the descriptive stakeholder theory which is about how managers and stakeholders actually act and the perception of their responsibilities and actions.

The stakeholder theory that, in fact, relates very well with corporate social responsibility is the instrumental stakeholder theory. This theory is at times associated with a corporation's strategic style: where the major concern for the corporation is how its managers perform if they are allowed to put their own interests and/or the interests of the corporation forward as it relates to profit maximization or the maximization of stockholder value (Friedman and Miles, 2006). Orlitzky et al (2003) mention that several authors are of the opinion that corporate social performance might help a corporation towards acquiring new abilities, raw materials and possibilities which are apparent in a corporation's culture, expertise, business and workforce.

Corporate social performance is closely related to corporate social responsibility and it is sometimes assumed that it will help advance managerial abilities that boost employee contribution, organization and harmonization together with a ground-breaking management approach (Shrivastava, 1995). The reputation perspective theory on the other hand, states that “superficially, corporate social performance might encourage the development of a positive figure with a corporation's customers, its investors, banks and contractors which it can in the long run benefit from through having access to capital and also possibly draw high-quality employees towards it and also enhance the good will of its current employees towards the organization which over time the corporation might benefit from in financial terms” (Orlitzky et al, 2003). In recent times, it will be seen that so many corporations and/or establishments have planned and sustained their businesses in ways that correspond to the concept of the stakeholder theory (Collins and Porras, 1994). For example, corporations like Procter and Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, British American Tobacco, to mention a few, present an excellent example of the value managers place on the fundamentals of stakeholder theory. It is worth noting that these corporations place high importance on their stakeholders and organizational wealth but at the same time do not stress on profitability as the push factor of their business. This is because they are fully aware of the worth and relationship with stakeholders as an important factor if they are to succeed.

Friedman (1970) on the other hand is of a contrary opinion. He is of the opinion that when executives take decisions it should only be for the purpose of wealth creation for its stakeholders. It is evident that Friedman does not support the concept of CSR. He holds that the principal duty of directors is towards their staff. In his opinion, a corporate executive may take decisions that directly concern himself but should never take decisions concerning, for example, price mark down of products or pollution due to carbon emission, beyond the obligations imposed on the corporation by law. Friedman states further that by doing these, the corporate executive will be spending the corporations' wealth and forcing its stockholders to pay tax while at the same time taking decision on the expenditure of the corporation's tax returns. Friedman (1970) asserts that governments demand taxes from corporate entities, ensuring that there are adequate governmental, legal and constitutional measures in place to force compliance. Friedman stresses that executives are selected by stockholders as representatives to protect their interest and this motivation dies gradually if the corporate executive wastes the stockholders wealth on social activities.

Friedman's belief is that government instructs corporations to pay a certain amount as tax and if paid, government use the tax appropriately, thereby making it unnecessary for corporations themselves to engage in any CSR projects. In this regard, one assumes that such taxes will be adequate to ensure the effective handling by the government of CSR activities that benefit the environment and the larger society. In Friedman's perception, the corporations that pay their taxes as and when due are responsible. Jensen and Meckling (1976) assert that corporate social responsibility may have an adverse effect on corporations especially if the cost of implementing CSR projects becomes exceptionally high.

There are certain contrary views that claim that many ostensibly socially responsible corporations actually benefit far more from their CSR activities than the target societies that were expected to be the main beneficiaries. For example, relying on a report by Corporate Watch (2006), more than “80% of corporate CSR decision-makers were confident in the ability of good CSR practice to deliver branding and employee benefits. To take the example of corporate philanthropy, when corporations make donations to charity, they are giving away their shareholders' money, which they can only do if they see potential profit in it. This may be because they want to improve their image by associating themselves with a cause, to exploit a cheap vehicle for advertising, or to counter the claims of pressure groups, but there is always an underlying financial motive, so the company benefits more than the charity”.

Paine (2002) affirms that the choice to neglect corporate social responsibility will in some way indicate the corporation's disrespect for its stakeholders who include its workers, suppliers, clientele and the society at large. Quoting CIPD (2009), “When CSR is done well; it means a precious, though precarious, trust in your business. Successful CSR can bring benefits such as a distinct position in your marketplace, protecting your employer brand, and building credibility and trust with current and potential customers and employees. It can help significantly with recruitment, engagement and retention of employees”.

Some academics believe that some corporations embark on corporate social responsibility projects for strategic reasons. Xueming and Bhattacharya (2008) affirm that in recent times, corporate social responsibility matches the strategic plan of many corporations. They mention that although some corporations carry out a range of socially responsible activities such as philanthropic acts, corporate responsibility and sustainability reporting, marketing and stakeholder events to mention a few, they do so not because they feel it is the “right thing to do” but regard it is a “smart thing to do”.

2.1.1 GOVERNMENT AS STAKEHOLDERS

Porter and Van der Linde (1995) believe that countries impose firm directives on home organizations, and the relationship government has with organizations' corporate social responsibility issues positively affects them. It encourages them to create policies pertaining to the environment, cost reduction, sustainability of their products, and also increase the organizations' competitive advantage in the international marketplace. This means that the government can control organizations and ensure they adhere to its directives and policies.

Even though government has great control on the way organizations operate their businesses through the use of regulatory guidelines and policies, the activities of organizations have also had a growing influence on the government. Thorne et al (2008) assert that “managing this relationship with government officials while navigating the dynamic world of politics is a major challenge for firms, both large and small”. They explain that because of the varied nature of the environment, there are several competitors and suppliers in the decision making process, and as such raising the economic risks. Being stakeholders, organizations and government are considered mutual stakeholders and as such both sides can cooperate and play a part in the decision making process. In a Questions-and-Answers session with the Chairman and CEO, Charles Holliday, of DuPont a science-based solution company, Holliday was asked on how businesses and the government can effectively collaborate on standards-setting and value-creation for their stakeholders. He replied as follows: “The complexities and opportunities of modern business and industry are too great to assume that regulation alone can get us where we have to go. Regulation, as we have seen historically, is not a precision tool for change. But it can overcome inertia and get things going. The landmark environmental legislation of the 1970s and 1980s set in motion the kind of change that in the U.S. has led to cleaner air and water. No one doubts that”. He further said that in regulating sustainability, “We can expect that government will identify some pressure points where regulatory instruments can advance the cause. But real progress in sustainability will come from what we build into products and services, in the way we design and operate our plants and distribution networks, in the way we think about the ultimate disposition of the things we make, even - and especially - in the way we direct our research and development. It's hard to imagine regulatory protocols that can encompass all of that. Industry has to be imaginative and proactive and show that we can accomplish the things our stakeholders expect of us, especially those things that go beyond the letter of the law” (as cited in Freeman et al, 2006). He also mentioned that at DuPont, they have reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 72% since 1990 and this is because it was expected of them by their stakeholders to be proactive, and that gave them the push. This further shows how corporations work on their own in accordance with government directives designed towards improving the society. Marcus (2002) and Delmas and Terlaak (2002) are quick to assert that some corporations might be discouraged if government implements regulations they consider stringent and as such corporations should be allowed to make their own decisions as they consider appropriate.

2.2 THE CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY SCHOOLS OF THOUGHTS

The issue of whether corporations should be socially responsible or not, the extent to which they should be responsible, to whom they should be responsible and the context in which they should be responsible, has been a major debate amongst researchers. There are two schools of thought which have differing opinions on CSR matters. They are the restrictive and expansionist opinions. The restrictive school of thought upholds the profit maximisation stand while the other school believes that corporations should be socially responsible.

2.2.1 THE EXPANSIONIST SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

The expansionists believe that environmental problems are caused by businesses and for that reason they should be liable for their externalities. Stoner and Wankel (1988) maintain that corporations should take into consideration the impact of their environmental activities on the society and for that reason they should act responsibly not only for the benefit of their stakeholders but to the general populous. Davis and Blomstrom (1975) give an account of their opinion of how a model corporation should look. They assert that it should provide an opportunity for investment, a good working condition, be ethically considerate, be a good corporation to do business with, pay their tax contributions and support government's endeavours, be good to the community they work in, contribute to social endeavours and public concerns. Crowther and Rayman- Bacchus (2004) assert that “the activities of an organization impacts upon the external environment and have suggested that such an organization should therefore be accountable to a wider audience than simply its shareholders”. They also mention that the “recognition of the rights of all stakeholders and the duty of a business to be accountable in this wider context therefore has been largely a relatively recent phenomenon”. In summary, corporate social responsibility should include responsibility to the owners of the business, customers, employees, society and the government (Oshagbemi, 1983).

2.2.2 THE RESTRICTIVE SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

The restrictive school is of the opinion that there needs to be a degree of separation of social bodies. In other words, there should be a separation of the religious groups from the state/government and/or business to a large extent. According to the authors of the restrictive school of thought, the function of religious groups is tied to religion while that of the state/government or a corporation is business. The authors suggest that each social body should go about its own business/functions and not get in the way of the other's business. Friedman (1962) states that “only people can have social responsibility, a company is an artificial being and in this sense has artificial responsibilities, but business as a whole cannot be said to have responsibilities, even in this vague sense”. Druker (1968) also mentions that the duty of an executive is to strive to make profit and that there is no room for any other responsibility. Friedman (1962) pushes his opinion forward by likening CSR with “stealing from the stakeholders”. Friedman makes reference to his 1962 book titled: Capitalism and Freedom, where he mentioned that in a “free society, there is one and only one social responsibility of business - to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud” (Friedman, 1970).

2.3 EFFECTS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ON AN ORGANIZATION

As mentioned earlier, organizations interpret CSR differently depending on their involvement in it. It is ideal to have a proper working definition of CSR as defined by a corporation or an agency. Defining the whole idea of CSR, the world business council on sustainable development, 2000 (as cited in the Corporate Watch Report) states that CSR is “the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large”.

A look at the various cases for and definitions of CSR, shows that authors have differing opinions about the effect of CSR on organizations. “One broad argument postulates that the business community as a whole will benefit from socially responsible behaviour”; this might be in terms of trying to reduce crime rate, tax, welfare and many more. Another case proposed in support of CSR enjoins: “treat your employees well, get them involved and you will make more money” (Mintzberg, 1983). Some corporations view CSR as an avenue to employee more staff and ensure they serve the corporation for long and in addition help the corporation in cost reduction and enable an efficient workforce (Greening and Turban 2000). Friedman (1970), an ardent critic of CSR practices, insists that “it may well be in the long-run interest of a corporation that is a major employer in a small community to devote resources to providing amenities to that community or to improving its government; this may make it easier to attract desirable employees, reduce the wage bill or lessen losses from pilferage and sabotage or have other worthwhile effects”.

In essence, CSR illustrates the idea that corporations capable of undertaking CSR ought to do so by making a worthy contribution to the society. This can be achieved by responding promptly to the needs of the stakeholders and also by carrying out business functions in accordance with a stipulated practice (for example: code of conduct) which may not necessarily be a law. Corporations undertake CSR activities in different ways in order to be perceived as being socially responsible; examples are:

It is often argued that the reason why corporations engage in CSR is a certain level of self interest (Moon 2001), not considering if the act is strategically motivated by commercial reasons alone or whether it is also motivated by what might seem as an altruistic interest. According to Rollison (2002), “it is always difficult to tell whether behaving ethically towards external stakeholders is prompted by altruism or self-preservation”. Some reasons why organizations are likely to engage in CSR activities are listed below.

a) IMAGE MANAGEMENT

The theory of firm claims that an organization's interest is to maximize its shareholders value. Observing CSR from this point, it can be said that it is an answer to the ever increasing competition in the environment coupled with excessive demands on executives from different stakeholder group (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001: Menon and Menon, 1997). This may atimes involve putting pressure on the stakeholder groups involved so as to ensure that the corporation thrives. Gray et al (1995) assert that including stakeholders in the business of a corporation and embarking on sustainability reporting can be seen as “... mechanisms by which the organizations satisfy (and manipulate)...” In other words, CSR reporting can be seen in the light of corporate image management, marketing and a public relations tool which corporations use in order to show that they perform some sort of CSR activity. These tools are used adequately in order to foster a healthy competitive status by passing on information created to preserve an excellent image (Adkins, 1999; Darby, 1999). As such, many organizations pay particular attention to the image the public sees of them because it helps them do business effectively. Anything that affects their image can possibly hinder their sales and even affect their licences or funding (Reich, 1998).

b) CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY

Becker and Barro (1998) wrote a very authoritative essay on the characteristics of philanthropy. The existence of philanthropy is no more argued even though it is not easy to show that corporations take it on. Although firms donate money and aids to charities, schools and individuals, it may be for philanthropic purposes or to portray a good image to consumers. According to WBCSD (2000), corporations engage in philanthropic activities “because it is easy and very PR friendly, corporate giving is more easily dismissed as a PR exercise than other forms of CSR. In an effort to respond to this criticism companies are shifting to making larger donations to a smaller number of charity 'partners' and combining giving with other activities”.

c) TO WIN POTENTIAL INVESTORS

Another reason why firms exceed what they are required to do by engaging in community altruism or healthy and safety regulations is that they feel it looks appealing to potential investors - individuals or large corporate bodies. In recent times, social responsibility investments have been growing. According to Portney (2008), “in 2005, nearly 10 percent of the more than $20 trillion invested under professional management was in funds run by managers who based their stock selection at least in part on companies' commitments to CSR”.

d) GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS

CSR is an essential part of growth, trade, asset, retirement fund and other public regulations. The British government has taken on various strategic programmes to encourage CSR. Britain is very interested in CSR but not a pioneer in putting into operation the OECD guidelines for multinationals (Aaronson and Reeves, 2002). The United Kingdom is also one of the countries that has a minister in charge of CSR. The minister's responsibilities include implementing the governments plan to increase the understanding of CSR, to develop policies that provide help in the area of CSR, to encourage agreement on codes of practice within UK and other countries and also encourage the need for a framework that supports social and environmental reporting by organizations. It encourages the implementation of “formal environmental management systems and accredited certification to international and national standards such as ISO 14001 and BS 8555 to help organizations achieve improved performance” (European Commission, 2007). The government has also put in place an independent certification system called the IEMA-Acorn scheme, to help promote organizations that make use of the BS 8555 standardization method.

e) RISK MANAGEMENT

Investing in a corporation can be a bit dicey and as such investors want to know that the corporation is worth investing in. According to WBCSD (2000), CSR “means that companies have to be aware of the issues which might cause them to be targeted by campaigners. This doesn't necessarily mean cleaning up their act. It can equally mean trying to occupy the ideological space around an issue or getting decision makers to agree with their point of view with a few strategic donations”. Another reason why corporations undertake CSR activities atimes is not because they have to be compliant but because it will help win favour of current and potential customers. For example, the McDonald's Corporation issues a seventy page corporate responsibility report that shows its “support for sustainable fisheries as well as a ‘fork to farm' supply-chain management strategy that emphasizes humane farming, cattle growing, and food processing” (Portney, 2008). It also contributes immensely towards raising support for Ronald McDonald House Charities. One of the reasons why it makes all these efforts is to avoid harm to its business which can possibly trigger a boycott of its restaurants by ethical organizations.

f) COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Because CSR is still evolving, investing in it early means that a corporation can strategically place itself as a leader in its business area before its competitors. By doing this, the corporation is way ahead of future regulations and even other corporations in its sector that have not yet taken up CSR as a business strategy, thereby giving it a competitive advantage. Companies like, Shell BP, Nike, Tesco, Ben and Jerry's, Body Shop, to mention a few, all put up records of their environmental corporate responsibility/sustainability activities, health and safety policies, and community voluntary altruism, so as to separate themselves from competition and also guarantee brand loyalty.

In recent times, organizations have been taking steps to ensure that they are not only tops at what they do but are projected in a positive light, by striving to be socially responsible either by making sure they are ethical in their dealings or transparent in their accounts to their stakeholders. Embedding Corporate Social Responsibility activities into organizations, otherwise known as mainstreaming, is a step that a growing number of organizations are beginning to take in making sure that every area of their business operations is linked with CSR. Katsoulakos and Katsoulacos (2007) affirm that “CSR and corporate sustainability as business practices remain isolated from mainstream strategy and therefore mainstreaming has become the key challenge for the corporate responsibility movement”. This goes to show how seriously organizations and regulatory bodies are taking the issue of corporate social responsibility. As mentioned before, CSR is not only of interest to pressure groups but also to businesses and lawmakers.

2.5 CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability as an important issue was brought to the attention of governments when environmental problems threatening resources and natural degradation were addressed by international organizations and governments. Even though it was being addressed at a universal level, corporate participation seemed very vital because of the large demand for funds and the effect of industrial activities on the environment (Garriga and Mele, 2004). In its 1987 Brundtland Report, the UN World Commission on Environment and Development came up with the term “sustainability”. Its first definition of sustainability was as a development “that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Van Marrewijk, 2003). A recent definition of sustainability expresses it as “a process of achieving human development in an inclusive, connected, equitable, prudent and secure manner” (Gladwin and Kennelly, 1995 as cited by Garriga and Mele (2004)). Although sustainability evidently placed the environment as its main focus initially, it gradually stretched out to contain the concern for social worries as they are seen as being “inseparable from development” (Keinert, 2008). From a business perspective, The World Business Congress affirmed that sustainability “required the integration of social, environmental, and economic considerations to make balanced judgements for the long term” (Garriga and Mele, 2004).

2.6 ENVIRONMENTAL CSR AND CORPORATIONS

A lot of awareness on environmental matters has been raised by governments, environmental advocates, business organizations, the public and even decision makers in the last couple of years (Banerjee, 2002). Banerjee asserts that “more than a century of industrial development has come at a price: global warming, ozone depletion, air and water pollution, soil erosion, and deforestation are now widely recognized as global environmental problems demanding immediate solutions. International environmental agreements, government environmental policies and regulation, industry environmental management practices, and pro-environmental consumer behaviour are some ways of addressing environmental problems”. Hoffman (2001) in his book titled: From heresy to dogma: an institutional history of corporate environmentalism, mentions that even though corporate environmental spending have increased steadily every year since 1973, it “is indicative not of industry's being motivated to act but of its being forced to react”.

Banerjee (2002) suggests that “corporate environmentalism, i.e. the recognition and integration of environmental concerns into a firm's decision-making process, is one way that business can address environment issues”. Banerjee asserts that corporate environmentalism has to do with the awareness by corporations that “environmental problems arise from the development, manufacture, distribution and consumption of their products and services”. Corporate environmentalism is another name researchers make use of while referring to corporate environmental participation.

Lyon and Maxwell (2008) define environmental CSR as “environmentally friendly actions not required by law, also referred to as going beyond compliance, the private position of public goods, or voluntarily internalizing externalities”. Portney (2008) also makes use of this definition at a symposium. This definition is not accepted by everybody. Take Milton Friedman for example. In his 1970 New York Times Article, it is obvious that Friedman (1970) considers an action as CSR only if it is not advantageous to the corporation. Socially lucrative deeds that boost profits are simply “hypocritical window-dressing”. It is hard to tell if being environmentally responsible is actually out of the volition of corporation, as there are legislations they have to abide by. There have been attempts to explain the recent rise in environmental CSR by corporations. Lyon and Maxwell (2008) surmises that: “Perhaps pollution is symptomatic of broader production inefficiencies, and pollution reduction and cost reduction go hand in hand to create win-win opportunities in today's economy. Perhaps a new generation of ‘green' consumers is willing to pay higher prices for clean products, and firms are simply responding to this shift. Or perhaps business has become savvier about the workings of the political system, taking proactive steps to avert political conflict (e.g., regulatory threats, enforcement pressures, boycott threats from NGOs) rather than reacting to public pressure after the fact”.

2.6.1 DRIVERS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CSR
b) MARKET FORCES

In recent times, there has been a tremendous growth in the production and sale of environmentally friendly goods, ranging from organic food produce to organic clothing and electric cars, all in the bid to provide environmentally suitable goods. With the amount of environmentally friendly goods in the marketplace, there is increased competition that inadvertently affects the degree of environmental CSR corporations take on. Baron (2006) claims the value of a corporation will be less if they do not take on CSR activities. This is because investors gain significance and importance from CSR as the corporations share trade at a price higher than what it would have derived if no investor bothered about CSR.

b) PROFITABILITY

In trying to minimize damages done to the environment, corporate environmentalism, when carried out properly, plays a major role in boosting profitability. Mintzer (1992) asserts that novel technology does not come free and “re-engineering production processes to eliminate wastes can be expensive, but those higher costs are frequently more offset by savings in the cost of inputs, more efficient production and avoiding expenses associated with pollution abatement or waste disposal”. Corporate environmentalism can be used as a kind of insurance against the high costs linked with unforeseen environmental circumstances or disasters.

b) COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Corporate environmentalism can ultimately lead to lasting competitive advantage on the basis of carrying out business operations (goods and services) in environmentally friendly ways that reduce pollution. Micheal Porter in his work published in Scientific American (1991) as cited by Mintzer (1992), affirmed that competitive advantage develops from the ability of a corporation to constantly improve, innovate and advance its processes.

The highly competitive environment in which corporations operate has made it necessary for them to not only engage in highly efficient CSR practices but also account for every penny they spend in the process. Measuring how much CSR has contributed to the society and the organizations will not be possible if there are no sufficient reporting and evaluation methods in place. According to Ahansul Hoque, the CSR Bangladesh director of training and research, “The impact of CSR is intangible; you can't measure it accurately in either length or width, or in weight or distance. The impact of CSR to the organization has to be studied in terms of the employee loyalty, zero-day or reduced strikes in the production line, increased employee performance, increased productivity, and many other parameters which are an outcome of practicing CSR in the organization/industry” (Ascent, 2009).

Carroll (2000) responds to the issue as to whether the corporate social responsibility performance of a corporation should be measured, if at all it should, and why it should be measured. According to Carroll, the measurement of corporate social performance should be carried out because “it is an important topic to business and to society, and measurement is one part dealing seriously with an important matter… the real question is whether valid and reliable measures can be developed”. A lot of efforts have been made towards measuring the socially responsible actions of corporations both by academic and business societies. On the other hand, Wolfe and Aupperle (1991) point out that there is no particularly good way of measuring the corporate social doings of an organization.

Corporations make use of various guidelines in measuring how socially responsible they are. In measuring the performance of corporations with respect to corporate social responsibility and sustainability, below are some of the instruments used.

2.6.3 BENCHMARKING

Benchmarking is an instrument whereby a corporation measures its performances against other corporations' best practices. This is used to determine how those other corporations achieved their level of performance and the information derived is used to improve its own level of performance (Visser et al., 2008). Benchmarking is performed by some organizations such as FTSE4Good, Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, to mention a few. Other standards that support CSR benchmarking include: Global Reporting Initiative, OECD Guidelines for Multinationals, and UN Global Compact etc.

a) ADVANTAGES OF BENCHMARKING

Ø Transparency: transparency can be enhanced through benchmarking of corporations. This is because companies are awarded points for their doings and achievements which give stakeholders the opportunity to determine how responsible a particular corporation is. It also gives an corporation the opportunity to show its CSR achievements. The benchmark score is an opportunity for an corporation to prove to its stakeholders that it acts in a responsible manner (Graafland et al., 2004).

Ø Accountability: benchmarking develops the accountability of a corporation. When a corporation has been scored, it is easy for its stakeholders to challenge the corporation with respect to its doings. The stakeholder is able to judge if the corporation has improved its social responsibility by comparing with previous years. Through its benchmark scores, a corporation is able to pinpoint its weaknesses and the employees responsible for its achievements (Graafland et al., 2004)

Ø Comparison: it is assumed that a company with a high benchmark score is more responsible than that with a lower score and as such stakeholders are able to compare several corporations and then choose which one of them they would like to be involved with (Graafland et al., 2004). A corporation is also able to compare its scores with other corporations in order to compete on CSR practices. Waddock and Graves (1997) assert that comparison enables a practical analysis of the link between CSR activities and financial issues.

b) DISADVANTAGES OF BENCHMARKING

Ø Intentions: the intentions of a corporation are not dealt with in benchmarking. According to Graafland et al., (2004), “the importance of intentions for a moral evaluation of actions is maybe most clearly stated by Immanuel Kant. Kant's ethical theory is a deontological one. It focuses on the intention of an action. If the intention of a moral action is good, the action itself is morally good. The outcome of that action does not matter”.

Ø Control of corporation: corporations are liable for all their actions or inactions in the benchmarking process. Yet some corporations cannot control the impact of their actions. Morally, a corporation should not be held liable for actions it cannot control (Graafland et al., 2004).

This commenced in 1999. The Dow Jones sustainability Index, a partnership between STOXX Limited, Dow Jones Indexes and SAM Group, reviews the Dow Jones Index using several deciding factors based on economic, environmental and social criteria and recognizes the top 10% in each key industry in the Dow Jones Global Total Stock Market Index (DJSI Guide, 2009).

The index is based on four sources of information:

Ø Questionnaires tailored to a specific industry.

Ø Company documents which include financial, health and safety, environmental and sustainability reports.

Ø Communication with the companies.

Ø Examination of available reports (stakeholder reports and media reports) from past years.

Appendix 2 shows a summary of the decisive factors and their weightings.

b) BUSINESS IN THE COMMUNITY

Business in the Community (BIC) was established in 1982 and currently has over 800 members. It is the largest and “one of the oldest national business-led coalitions dedicated to corporate social responsibility” (BITC, 2009). The BIC motivates, engages, encourages and challenges corporations to make positive contributions in their communities, workplace, marketplace and environment (BITC, 2009).

c) FTSE4GOOD

This was created to measure corporations that meet globally recognised CSR standards, perform and make investing in such corporations possible. FTSE4Good can be made use of in the following ways:

Ø Investment

A basis for responsible investment, financial instruments and fund products.

Ø Research

A research tool to identify environmentally and socially responsible companies.

Ø Reference

A reference tool to provide companies with a transparent and evolving global

corporate responsibility standard to aspire to and surpass.

Ø Benchmarking

A way of tracking the performance of other responsible investment portfolios (FTSE, 2009).

d) GRI GUIDELINES

The “Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a network-based organization that has pioneered the development of the world's most widely used sustainability reporting framework and is committed to its continuous improvement and application worldwide” (GRI, 2009).

The GRI reporting framework is designed to be a generally accepted framework for reporting on a corporation's economic, social and environmental performance and has been developed to be used by corporations in any sector, of any size and in any location. The reporting framework has been designed through a decision making process with contributors selected globally from business, labour and professional institutions (SRG, 2009). Appendix 4 shows the GRI reporting framework.

2.7 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This dissertation examines past studies in corporate social responsibility so as to answer the following research questions.

Corporations have noticed that stakeholders are not satisfied with only their philanthropic doings but expect more. The dissertation proposes to answer the following questions:

Ø What have the selected companies done towards being environmentally responsible?

§ What metrics or indicators do the selected companies use to measure or benchmark their environment CSR progress?

Ø How has the global economic crisis affected environmental Corporate Social Responsibility within the selected companies?

CHAPTER 3
CHOICE OF METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses the various views in the choice of methodology, research strategy, data collection and data analysis. The methodology employed in this dissertation and the decisions that have impacted its choice will be explained. The research method chosen is duly influenced by the sort of research questions being looked at. Zikmund (2005) defines a research design as a “master plan specifying the methods and procedures for collecting and analysing the needed information”.

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

The case study design has been employed for this research, making use of the exploratory approach. Case study is regularly linked to descriptive or exploratory research and not in any way limited to these spheres (Bonoma, 1985). Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005) refer to case study as a “description of a management situation. A case study often involves data collection through multiple sources such as verbal reports, personal interviews and observation as primary data sources”. They also assert that “case methods involve data collection through sources such as financial reports, archives, and budget and operating statements, including market and competition reports” (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2005). On the other hand, Collis and Hussey (2003) assert that “a case study is an extensive examination of a single instance of a phenomenon of interest”. It is necessary to have a clear idea of the situation. Eisenhardt (1989) as cited by Collis and Hussey (2003) suggests that a case study is “a research study which focuses on understanding the dynamics present within single setting”. Case studies are sometimes referred to as “exploratory research” (Collis and Hussey, 2003). Scapens (1990) breaks case study down into the following:

o Descriptive;

o Illustrative;

o Experimental;

o Explanatory.

The case study method can be used for all types of research.

3.2.1 MULTIPLE- CASE STUDY

Case study design is not restricted to the study of a single case. Multiple-case study designs have become popular in business and management researches. A multiple-case study is an extension of case study design. The multiple-case study design is seen in the light of the comparative design because it is carried out in a comparative style. Multiple-case study design gives the researcher the opportunity to compare and contrast findings from the selected cases.

As mentioned earlier, this research is conducted making use of the case study design but with multiple cases. Three companies have been selected within the FMCG industry and an assessment of their environmental corporate social responsibility activities will be carried out in line with the already stated objectives of this research. The three companies: Reckitt Benckiser PLC, Procter and Gamble Company and British American Tobacco PLC were chosen because they are well known multinational companies whose various products are recognized and purchased around the world. These companies were selected with the intention of interviewing their branches in England but due to unforeseen circumstances (company regulations and disclosure policy) the interviews could not be held.

3.3 RESEARCH APPROACH

Saunders et al, (2000): Ying, (1989) assert that research can be split into different groups with regards to their purpose and also the strategy to be used (Robson, 1993). Research can be grouped as an exploratory, explanatory or descriptive study.

Ø Explanatory research

This research offers data that shows a cause and effect relationship and such is useful for designing and undertaking complex case studies. This is because it is easy to match patterns to a number of sequences (Yin, 1994). This sort of research can help in testing theories when a general data collection attempt is put in place (Yin, 1993). The researcher attempts to identify issues that cause a particular happening (Cooper et al., 2003). Saunders et al. (2000) suggests the use of explanatory research when testing correlations. This is because it provides a good understanding of relationships.

Ø Exploratory research

This sort of research method is made use of when a research problem is not very well understood or there is little or no knowledge (Sekaran, 1992; Robson, 1993; Cooper et al, 2003). The aim of this research is to gain as much information relating to the problem (Reynolds, 1971). Yin (1989) suggests that the research should be carried out in a flexible way. This is because as new pieces of information are presented, “the search for solution may change direction” (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2005).

Ø Descriptive research

This sort of research can be used to augment an exploratory research. This is done so as to have a clear understanding of the research problem (Saunders, 2000). A description basically is achieved by summarizing data collected from reports, journal articles and by observing (Gummesson, 1991). A description does not provide a solution to a problem; instead it describes the issues within the situation (Yin, 1994). This sort of method is used when the problem at hand is structured (Cooper et al., 2003).

3.4 RESEARCH STRATEGY

According to Cooper et al. (2003), research strategies can be broken into two: qualitative and quantitative. Bryman and Bell (2007) assert that it is usually hard to differentiate between qualitative and quantitative research strategies. They both agree that “qualitative research can be construed as a research strategy that usually emphasizes words rather than quantification in the collection and analysis of data” while “quantitative research can be construed as a research strategy that emphasizes quantification in the collection and analysis of data”. The choice of research approach is based on the features of the information gathered. The difference between them is that quantitative is “predominantly used as a synonym for any data collection technique (such as questionnaire) or data analysis procedure such as (graphs or statistics)” while qualitative is “used predominantly as a synonym for any data collection technique (such as interview) or data analysis procedure (such as categorising data) that generates or use non-numerical data” (Saunders et al., 2007).

Quantitative method deals with data that involve numbers which need to be statistically analysed while qualitative method basically is a translation of the data collected by the researcher through questionnaires and interviews into words. Data gathered in qualitative research cannot be translated into numbers (Bryman and Bell, 2007). Strauss and Corbin (1990) describe qualitative research as “any type of research that produces findings not arrived at by statistical procedure or any other means of qualification. It can refer to research about persons' lives, behaviours, lived experiences, emotions and feelings as well as about social movements, organizational functioning, cultural phenomena and interactions between nations”.

The research strategy adopted for this research is a mixture of both the qualitative and quantitative method. The strategy is quantitative in the sense that some of the secondary data collected are quantifiable (statistical graphs collected from the sustainability reports of the selected companies) while the qualitative aspect stems from the statements made by the companies' executives relating to environmental corporate social responsibility.

3.5 JUSTIFICATION OF METHODOLOGY

In order to gather the most useful and relevant data, various research methods were critically looked at. A lot of time and effort was invested in assessing the very many research methodologies before finally choosing one. Eriksson and Weidersheim 1999; Bryman and Bell 2007 state that there are two types of data: primary and secondary data. Primary data are data gathered by a researcher at the source through interviewing or administering questionnaires to relevant parties. Because of the nature of this research, only secondary data were made use of. Secondary data are data that are already in existence. This type of data are often data that have been collected by someone for a specific purpose. Bryman and Bell (2003) claims that there are two main types of secondary data:

* “Data collected, either for commercial or research purposes, by other people” and

* “Statistics collected by government departments in the course of their work or specifically for statistical purposes”.

In conducting this research, primary data in quantitative or qualitative methods were not achievable. Gabriel (2000) claims that information drawn from primary data, for example interviews, may be filled with emotions and might not contain the required information or facts. This is not to say that interviews or surveys cannot be made use of. According to Stahl (1999), “the interview approach has the advantage that the basis for information given during the interview can immediately be explored in considerable depth”.

Attempts were made towards conducting interviews and administering questionnaires to some top fast moving consumer goods companies. This was not successful due to organizational policies.

3.6 DATA COLLECTION

The triangulation method best describes how this research has been carried out. Triangulation is the use of different research methods, approaches and techniques. Denzin (1970) states that triangulation is “the combination of methodologies in the study of the same phenomenon”.
3.6.1 ADVANTAGES OF SECONDARY DATA

Ø Cost and time: Making use of secondary data saves time and reduces cost since the data collected has been processed and the results available. According to Bryman and Bell (2007), “secondary analysis offers the prospect of having access to good-quality data for a fraction of the resources involved in carrying out a data collection exercise”.

Ø High quality data: Most of the datasets made use of in secondary analysis are of very high quality. This means that the sampling procedures employed have been thorough “resulting in samples that are as close to being representative as one is likely to achieve” (Bryman and Bell, 2007).

Ø Wide coverage: Often the samples derived covers a selection of regions and as such enable a “cross national comparison” (Bryman and Bell, 2007). It is obvious that a student's project cannot achieve the enormous amount of data sets attained in a wide ranged research.

Ø Expertise Material: Most datasets have been produced by professional researchers and/or research organizations “that have developed structures and control procedures to check on the quality of the emerging data” (Bryman and Bell, 2007).

3.6.2 DISADVANTAGE OF SECONDARY DATA

Some slight problems might arise while working with secondary data and so it is necessary to pay attention to unfamiliar data. This is because the data has been gathered by someone else. It is necessary that the researcher takes time out to get acquainted with the data sets particularly if the datasets are complex. Large and complex datasets can present difficulties particularly with managing them and as such a period of familiarization may be necessary.

3.7 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

The major source of information for this research is secondary data. Information will be sourced from:

Ø Journals and Books: Journal articles from ABI/INFORM, Business Premier, JSTOR, Emerald Library and recommended books by the University will be taken into account.

Ø Websites: internet search engines will be made use of as a link to information sources. Search engines such as Proquest, Yahoo, and Google Scholar etc were made use of.

Ø Online research organizations like Data monitor, Euromonitor.

Ø Newspapers: Relevant news articles on the area of study will be made use of as a source of information.

Ø Company sustainability reports: data from the selected companies' sustainability reports will be particularly made used of.

CHAPTER 4
ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Corporate social responsibility is interpreted by organizations to suit their businesses; as a result, various FMCG companies have their own interpretations.

The aim of this analysis is to give a brief summary on environmental corporate social responsibility actions carried out by selected fast moving consumer goods companies in the area of water usage, CO2 emission and group energy usage. The data from the selected companies are for different years. Procter and Gamble Company and British American Tobacco PLC have the most recent sustainability reports for the year ending 2008 while that of Reckitt Benckiser is for the year ending 2007. In what follows, we provide a brief introduction of some FMCG companies, together with their CSR perspective and activities.

4.1 BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO

BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO AND THE ENVIRONMENT

British American Tobacco (BAT) is an international tobacco company that cells cigarettes, cigars, leaf and other tobacco products. It caters for over 100 markets in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Middle East, American pacific and Asia Pacific through a number of subsidiaries (Datamonitor, 2009a). It is the world's second largest tobacco group by global market share (BAT, 2009). BAT group has over 300 brands. Its top international brands include Lucky Strike, Kent, Dunhill, State Express 555, Rothmans, Kool, Viceroy, Pall Mall, Peter Stuyvesant and John Player Gold Leaf. Its manufactured products are sent to various outlets around the world including, hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes and tobacco shops to list a few (Datamonitor, 2009a). BAT recorded an earning of £12,122 million during the financial year ended December 2008, an increase of 21% growth of revenue.

In relation to CSR, BAT asserts that “a responsible tobacco industry is in the interest of society as a whole and, as the world's most international tobacco group, we are in a position to take the lead in defining and demonstrating what a socially responsible tobacco company should be. We do not believe that being in the tobacco business is inconsistent with the practice of corporate social responsibility. On the contrary, it would be an odd definition of CSR that only applied to ‘popular' businesses” (BAT, 2009). BAT also feels that it has a responsibility to “embed the principles of corporate social responsibility” in its group of companies' businesses.

Below are some of BAT's sustainability goals and commitment:

Ø To reduce its CO2 equivalent by 50 per cent by 2030 and 80 per cent by 2050 from its rebased year 2000 baseline of 1.38 (1.25 using previous factors) tonnes per million cigarettes equivalent.

Ø Develop and implement a pilot programme to encourage employees to reduce their own carbon footprint at home and at work.

Ø To reduce its waste to landfill by 12 per cent to 0.022 tonnes per million cigarettes equivalent and to achieve recycling rates greater than 75 per cent of waste generated in each year to 2012.

Ø To develop and validate scientifically meaningful measurements for exposure to tobacco smoke toxicants and to investigate how BAT might measure potential harm.

Ø To update and publish at www.bat.com and elsewhere the views and positions BAT advocates to regulators.

Ø Continue to support the introduction of an age-18 minimum age law for the sale of tobacco products where no such law exists.

Ø To raise awareness of the role some Free Trade Zones play in illicit trade of tobacco products and, where possible, lobby for governments to apply strong laws and penalties to criminals operating in these zones.

Ø To increase the proportion of senior management positions held by women (BAT sustainability Report, 2008).

Implementation of some of the mentioned goals and commitments are ongoing while some have scheduled end years. Taking a close look at the above mentioned goals and commitments, it will be seen that they are a mix of environmental, social and people oriented goals. For benchmarking its social responsibility performance, BAT follows the AA1000 standard and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines (BAT, 2009). They have also made use of the Business in the Community Environment index, Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DSJI world and DSJI STOXX) in the past.

British American Tobacco is aware of the impact of their operations on the environment and as such adheres to high standards of environmental protection, sustainable development principles etc (BAT, 2008). They strive to ensure the impact of their business on the environment is minimal by measuring, monitoring and setting objectives aimed at reducing the impacts. These performances and objectives are reported in the company's annual sustainability reports. BAT acknowledges the importance of having sound environmental practices within an organization like its own that depend on raw materials that come from natural resources, for example, tobacco plant and sometimes wood for its paper and packaging.

In response to environmental practices and policies, the company has designed and put into operation environmental management systems throughout its business operations. BAT manages the impact of its business operations on the environment by using environmental management systems that conform to the ISO 14001 standard and setting up its own in-house environmental policy. It also takes into consideration the opinion and expectations of its major stakeholders on environmental issues.

Figure 2 shows the BAT's total energy usage in gigajoules per million cigarettes during the period 2004 to 2008. In 2004, the energy used was 14.44GJ/million cigarettes; this went down to 12.60GJ/million cigarettes in 2005 and further down in 2006 to 12.21GJ/million cigarettes. This decline continued to 2007 where the energy used was 11.82GJ/million cigarettes. BAT's energy usage went up to 12.08GJ/million cigarettes in 2008 which the company attributed to change in business processes and an increase in business travels and the fuel used by its fleets.

Total energy used (GJ per million cigarettes)

Measurements in brackets are previous calculations

Source: BAT Sustainability Report 2008

Figure 3 shows the emissions produced in tonnes per million cigarettes during the period of 2004 to 2008. The emission produced was 1.25 tonnes/million cigarettes in 2004. These went down to 0.91 tonnes/million in 2005 and further down in 2006 to 0.87 tonnes/million. This reduction continued in 2007 to 0.88 tonnes/million cigarettes but increased to 0.94 in 2008 for the same reasons the company's total energy usage went up.

Emissions Produced (Tonnes CO2 per million cigarettes)

Source: BAT Sustainability Report 2008

Figure 4 shows the water used by BAT in cubic metres per million cigarettes during the period 2004 to 2008. In 2004, the water used was 6.61m3/million cigarettes; this went down in 2005 to 5.58m3/million cigarettes, and further down in 2006 to 5.18m3/million cigarettes. The decline in water usage continued in 2007 when it became 4.85m3/million cigarettes. BAT succeeded in further reducing its water usage in 2008 to 4.73m3/million cigarettes.

Water Used (m3 per million cigarettes)

Source: BAT Sustainability Report 2008

Figure 5 shows the waste produced by the company in tonnes per million cigarettes during the period 2004 to 2008. In 2004, the waste produced was 0.036 tonnes/million cigarettes. This went down to 0.035 tonnes/million cigarette in 2005 and further down in 2006 to 0.023tonnes/million cigarettes. In 2007, the waste produced was 0.025tonnes/million cigarettes and in 2008, the waste produced was 0.024tonnes/million cigarettes.

Waste Produced (Tonnes per million cigarettes)

Source: BAT Sustainability Report 2008

4.2 PROCTER AND GAMBLE COMPANY PROCTER AND GAMBLE COMPANY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Procter and Gamble Company (P&G) is the largest consumer goods company in the world with over 300 brands selling in over 180 countries. The company deals in the production of beauty, fabric, baby, home, health, family and personal care products. P&G recorded earnings of $83,503 million for the financial year ended 2008, a revenue increase of 9.2% (Datamonitor, 2009b).

Procter and Gamble company “believes that improving the lives of the world's consumers encompasses the three pillars of Sustainability: Economic Development, Environmental Protection and Social Responsibility”. The company strives to improve the quality of life for people around the world through what it does and how it does it. There are two main areas that are vital to the achievement of Procter and Gamble's business objectives and they are:

Ø Corporate social responsibility

Ø Sustainable production and consumption of products (P&G, 2009).

Below are a few of P&G's sustainability goals up to 2012

Ø Develop and market at least $20 billion in cumulative sales of “sustainable innovation products,” which are products with a significantly reduced (>10%) environmental footprint versus previous or alternative products.

Ø Deliver “an additional 10% reduction (per unit production) in CO2 emissions, energy consumption, water consumption and disposed waste from P&G plants, leading to a total reduction over the decade of at least 40%” (P&G, 2008).

Ø Enable 250 million children to Live, Learn and Thrive. Prevent 80 million days of disease and save 10,000 lives by delivering 2 billion litres of clean water in the company's Children's Safe Drinking Water programme.

Procter and Gamble Company employs the GRI guides and also the Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index (DJSI) for benchmarking its corporate responsibility performance.

Procter and Gamble is keen to improve the “environmental profile” of its operations internationally and by so doing, it has set goals for itself which include reducing its energy and water use and CO2 emissions to mention a few. Its target is to reduce each one of them by 10% per unit of production (P&G, 2008). It anticipates achieving its environmental goals by 2012. P&G is putting in a lot of effort towards achieving these goals. An example of what they have done is the building of “sustainability inspired manufacturing sites” in Europe, China and North America. They have also been upgrading existing facilities. An example of such improvements is the manufacturing plant located in Mehoopany, Pennsylvania where a heat recovery system was installed which generates sufficient energy to about 12,000 households in the United States yearly.

The emissions produced in tonnes per thousand units of product during the period of 2006 to 2008. The emission produced was 15.9 tonnes/thousand units of product in 2006. This went up to 16.7 tonnes/thousand unit per product in 2007 and then down in 2008 to 15.9 tonnes/thousand units of product.

Emissions Produced (CO2, SOx, NOx)

(Thousand metric tons)

Source: P&G Sustainability Report

Shows the water used by P&G in cubic metres per million units of product during the period 2006 to 2008. In 2006 the water used was 91m3/million units of product; this went down in 2007 to 90m3/million units of product, and further down in 2008 to 87m3/million units of product.

Water used (million m3)

Source: P&G Sustainability Report

Figure 8 shows the total energy used by the company in gigajoules per million units of product during the period 2006 to 2008. In 2006 and 2007, energy used was 78 gigajoules/million units of products respectively. But 2008 saw a decrease in energy usage to 76 gigajoules/million units of products.

Total Energy used (106 GJ)

Source: P&G Sustainability Report

Shows the waste produced by the company in tonnes per thousand units of product during the period 2006 to 2008. In 2006, the waste produced was 369 tonnes/thousand unit of products. This went up to 462 tonnes/thousand unit of products in 2007 and then down to 380 tonnes/thousand unit of products in 2008.

Waste Produced (thousand tonnes)

Source: P&G Sustainability Report

4.3 RECKITT BENCKISER

RECKITT BENCKISER AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Reckitt Benckiser is one the world's largest manufacturers of household cleaning products. The company's products are sold in over 180 countries across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, under different popular brands such as “Air Wick (home fragrance), Calgonit, Calgon (water softener), Dettol, Disprin (analgesics cold/flu), Electrasol, Finish, Flor (fabric softener), French's and Harpic (toilet cleaner)” (Datamonitor, 2009c). Reckitt Benckiser recorded earnings of £6,563 million during the financial year ending December 2008, representing an increase in revenue of 25%, compared with only 7% increase from the previous year (Reckitt Annual Report, 2008).

Reckitt Benckiser regards “corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability as one and the same, and is committed to moving its business towards greater sustainability across the economic, social and environmental dimensions of its activities” (Reckitt, 2004). In another statement, the company declares: “Our commitment is to make our business more sustainable and responsible. By this we mean a business that operates effectively today with as little environmental, social and ethical cost to the future as possible” (Reckitt, 2009). This statement explains the Reckitt CSR agenda. According to Reckitt (2009), the company is also committed to operating its business in a “responsible and environmentally sound manner”. To this end, the company has designed a corporate responsibility framework comprising a “code of business conduct and specific policies, control arrangements and reporting”. This framework controls how the organization performs in conducting its “company's business”. Some of the policies are: product safety, occupational health and safety, global manufacturing standard, community involvement policy, animal testing policy, and crisis management policy (Reckitt 2009).

In striving to be socially responsible, Reckitt Benckiser in the year ending 2007 achieved a 30% reduction in CO2 emission at its factories, reduced energy usage, water usage, wastewater, total and hazardous wastes and accidents. The company also had increase in its production volume, number of lives saved in collaboration with the Save the Children (a global charity organization it partners and supports), shareholder return, enhanced product quality and profits (Reckitt Sustainability report, 2007). Some of the Reckitt Benckiser's objectives in relation to CSR are:

Ø Reducing its carbon footprint by 20% per unit by 2020.

Ø To save 150,000 lives by raising £1.5 million by the end of 2008.

Ø Reducing its water discharges and waste.

Ø Ensuring that its products meet internal standards as well as global standards set by regulatory bodies. (Reckitt Sustainability Report, 2007).

Reckitt Benckiser takes part in benchmarking indices important to corporate responsibility, the environment and sustainability. Reckitt makes use of benchmarking indices such as the Dow Jones Sustainability indexes, FTSE4Good, Business in the Community CR index and the Business in the Community Environment index.

Reckitt Benckiser strives to carry out its business operations in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way. The company is aware of the fact that some of its business processes and products have direct and indirect effects on the environment. Reckitt Benckiser tries to effectively improve on its environmental performance and this has shown in outcomes of its emissions, water use and total group energy use. Figures show significant reductions in the emissions produced as well as water and group energy use.

The emissions produced by Reckitt in tonnes per thousand consumer units (CUs) during the period 2000 to 2007. The emissions produced from 2000 to 2007 were 0.0791, 0.0786, 0.729, 0.0718, 0.0710, 0.0677, 0.0618 and 0.0555 tonnes/thousand CUs respectively. The decrease achieved in 2007 can be linked to the implementation of energy saving and efficiency plans designed at Reckitt's factory located in Nottingham, UK, coupled with the installation of natural gas boiler systems at its China and Poland based factories (Reckitt, 2007).

Emissions Produced (tonnes C02 per ‘000 CUs)

Source: Reckitt Benckiser Sustainability Report

The water used by Reckitt Benckiser in cubic metres per thousand consumer units during the period 2000 to 2008. The water used from 2000 to 2007 was 1.10, 1.10, 1.01, 1.23, 1.19, 1.13, 1.10 and 0.97 m3/thousand CUs respectively. The decline in water usage for year 2007 can be attributed to the change in production system from a water intensive process to water and energy efficient systems (Reckitt, 2007).

Water Used (m3 per ‘000 CUs)

Source: Reckitt Benckiser Sustainability Report

Figure 12 shows the total energy used by Reckitt Benckiser in gigajoules per thousand consumer units during the period 2000 to 2008. The energy used from 2000 to 2007 was 0.0925, 0.0916, 0.844, 0.835, 0.795, 0.7750, 0.694 and 0.624 gigajoules/thousand CUs respectively. The decline in energy usage for year 2007 can be attributed to energy efficient systems in the company's plants in Mira, Italy and Nottingham, UK (Reckitt, 2007).

Total Energy used (GJs per ‘000 CUs)

Source: Reckitt Benckiser Sustainability Report

Figure 12

Figure 13 shows the waste produced by Reckitt Benckiser in tonnes per thousand consumer units during the period 2000 to 2008. The waste produced from 2000 to 2007 was 0.0130, 0.0112, 0.0109, 0.0108, 0.0106, 0.0110, 0.0124 and 0.0116 tonnes/thousand CUs respectively. The decline in waste produced for year 2007 can be attributed to waste reduction programmes at its UK and Russia factories. Production processes were moved from its factories in Spain and Canada which were shut down in 2007 to other efficient factories (Reckitt, 2007).

Waste Produced (tonnes per ‘000 CUs)

Source: Reckitt Benckiser Sustainability Report

Figure 13
4.4 FINDINGS

This study looked at the environmental corporate social responsibility activities carried out by selected FMCG companies in the areas of waste reduction, water usage, carbon emissions and general group energy usage. Our analysis has shown that the selected companies appreciate the importance of being socially responsible and are also conscious of how their business processes affect the environment.

This research work also confirms that linking corporate social responsibility activities, particularly environmental contributions to the society, with organizations' business processes can help in enhancing their corporate image and possibly contributes toward increasing the organization's finances. The selected companies in this research work are some of the leading companies in their areas of specialization. Procter and Gamble Company and British American Tobacco are currently ranked 68th and 416th in the world respectively (CNN, 2009b). The selected FMCG companies all have environment policies and standards which they implement and adhere to, in line with Carroll's work that states that organizations should strive to meet society's expectations with regards to the desires, expectations and stipulation of the state (Carroll, 1991).

In the course of carrying out this piece of research work on the selected companies, some observations were made and they include the follows.

Ø The use of different benchmarking indices. This might be due to the choice of the corporations and also their decision to disclose their performance ratings. Reckitt Benckiser and British American Tobacco are listed on the Business in the Community Environment Index. The BITC environment index is the United Kingdom's top “self-assessed corporate environmental benchmark”. It gives organizations the opportunity to benchmark their environmental performance against that of their competitors (BITC environment index, 2007). Organizations making use of BITC index can choose to opt out of disclosing its inclusion in the ratings. Appendix 5 shows the BITC 2007 environment index listing and index highlights. BAT has had problems with benchmarking due to the nature of its core business operations. Opposition (pressure/action groups) feel its business operations are not quite responsible to humans and the society at large and as such no amount of social responsibility activities (do-gooding) can change the effect of its business operations on the people and environment. FTSE4Good excludes businesses that produce terrible things like ammunitions, arms, tobacco etc. It refers to those groups as belonging to the ‘sin sector' to which BAT belong and is obviously excluded from the FTSE4Good ratings.

Ø The selected FMCG companies are into the production of different goods and as such their level of environmental achievements vary considerably. This can also be attributed to the size of the companies and their production volume.

In summary, the selected companies have full awareness of what is expected of them environmentally as stipulated by law and in line with their in-house environmental policies, and act appropriately. Figure 14 below summarizes the level of environmental CSR carried out by the selected companies with respect to the data from the most recent sustainability reports issued by the companies as compared with data from the previous year and Figure 15 is the graphical representation.

The formula used in calculating the percentage (%) increase/decrease is

Figure 16 below highlights the benchmarking indices used by the companies. The benchmarking index used by all three companies is the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.

COMPANIES

BENCHMARKING INDICES USED

FTSE4Good

DJSI

BITC

GRI Guidelines

BAT

a

a

a

P&G

a

a

Reckitt Benckiser

a

a

a

Source: compiled by author

Figure 16: Benchmarking indices

30

CROSS SECTIONAL ANALYSIS

The three companies under discussion manufacture different products: BAT produces cigarettes, P&G manufactures a wide range of products which include prescription drugs, personal care, laundry detergents, household and cleaning products etc and Reckitt Benckiser produces health and personal care products, household products, cleaning products etc. The tabulated values for each company have been calculated based on production of million units of product. This was used as the baseline units of products. Figures 17a and 17b display the absolute values of the different quantities as they relate to the three companies.

ABSOLUTE VALUES

COMPANY

COMPANY PRODUCTS

VARIABLES

WATER USAGE PER ONE MILLION UNITS OF COMPANY PRODUCT

(m3)

WASTE PRODUCE PER MILLION UNITS OF COMPANY PRODUCT

(tonnes)

2006

2007

2008

2006

2007

2008

BAT

Various tobacco products

X

5.18

4.85

4.73

0.023

0.025

0.024

P&G

Various household products

Y

91

90

87

369000

462000

380000

Reckitt Benckiser

Various health and personal care products

Z

110

970

-

12.4

11.6

-

Source: Compiled by Author

Figure 17a: Water usage and waste production

COMPANY

COMPANY PRODUCTS

VARIABLES

EMISSIONS PRODUCED PER MILLION UNITS OF COMPANY PRODUCT (tonnes)

TOTAL ENERGY USED PER MILLION UNITS OF COMPANY PRODUCT

(GJ)

2006

2007

2008

2006

2007

2008

BAT

Various tobacco products

X

0.087

0.88

0.97

12.21

11.82

12.08

P&G

Various household products

Y

15900

16700

15900

78

78

76

Reckitt Benckiser

Various health and personal care products

Z

61.8

55.5

-

694

624

-

Source: Compiled by Author

In figures 18a and 18b, the quantities in figures 17a and 17b are expressed as relative percentages. This enables us to compare the relative performance of the three companies in dealing with the key environmental issues of water usage, waste production, carbon emission and energy usage. The relevant calculations are indicated below.

COMPANY

COMPANY PRODUCTS

RELATIVE % WATER USAGE PER ONE MILLION UNITS OF COMPANY PRODUCTS

RELATIVE % WASTE PRODUCED PER MILLION UNITS OF COMPANY PRODUCT

2006

2007

2008

2006

2007

2008

BAT

Various tobacco products

2.512

0.5

5.156

0.0000062

0.0000054

0.0000063

P&G

Various household products

44.136

8.5

94.844

99.997

99.9975

99.99994

Reckitt Benckiser

Various health and personal care products

53.351

91.1

-

0.00336

0.00251

-

Source: Compiled by Author

Figure 18a: Relative percentage Water usage and waste production

COMPANY

The values in figure 18 are the relative percentages of water used, total energy used, as well as the waste and emissions produced by each company per 1million units of products. Denoting the relative percentages (%) of water used by BAT, P&G and Reckitt Benckiser by B, P and R, respectively, then, referring to figure 17,

B = , P = and R =

These formulae were used to calculate the relative percentages (%) water used by the companies per million products for 2007, 2008; similar formulae were also employed in the case of total energy usage, waste generated and CO2 emissions produced by the companies, in trying to meet their environmental sustainability targets.

From figures 18a and 18b above, it will be seen that the percentage water used, waste produced, emissions produced and total energy used by Reckitt Benckiser and Procter and Gamble Company were higher than that used by British American Tobacco PLC. This can be attributed to the fact that cigarette sticks are of small size and as such the amount of water used by the company is a lot less than the other two companies. The same can be said for other aspects of environmental corporate social activities of BAT compared to Procter and Gamble Company and Reckitt Benckiser PLC. Reckitt Benckiser PLC and P&G produce a wide range of products and the percentages of environmental corporate social activities for the companies are relatively high. On the whole, the companies are striving to make sure they are environmentally reasonable and responsible in carrying out their business operations.

4.5 DISCUSSION

BAT was selected as one of the FMCG companies to be analysed based on its environmental corporate social responsibility activities and also because of the product manufactured by this well known company. In a statement made by BAT Vietnam on the role of BAT as a responsible company in a “controversial industry”, it was affirmed that “we're dedicated to being a responsible company in a controversial industry” (BAT signposts to the future, 2009). This shows that BAT is fully aware of the fact that it might be targeted by pressure groups.

BAT has not been free from controversies and criticisms. A senior lecturer, Anja Schaefer, in management at the Open University Business School asserts that it is easy to make use of CSR as a way of averting criticisms. She cites the attack of BAT after it received a United Nations Environment Programme/Sustainability reporting award for corporate social reporting in 2004. A campaigner on CSR and global sustainability, Deborah Doane agrees with Anja's opinion and asserts that “a sceptic might question why a tobacco company, given the massive damage its products inflict, should be rewarded for its otherwise socially responsible behaviour” (Personneltoday, 2009). In 2007, four Nigerian States accused BAT alongside other tobacco companies of targeting “young and underage smokers” in order to increase their smoking rates. Lawyers from Kano State in Nigeria, claimed that the company sponsored pop concerts and sporting events and at some point gave out free cigarettes thereby encouraging underage smoking (Business Respect, 2007). Other issues that have rocked BAT as a company also have to do with the environment in terms of pollution. In a report put together by Lisa Rimmer, BAT's tobacco produces several millions tonnes of waste (chemical).

This is not to say that the other selected companies have been trouble-free but they have not been in as many sticky situations as BAT. In 2006, Procter and Gamble Company was accused of adding harmful substances to one of its high end cosmetic brands; the SK-II. The company was accused by China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. They said that traces of neodymium and chrome were found in a batch of SK-II products imported into China, which they later banned (Business Respect, 2006). These show the degree of accusations faced by these big corporations either as a result of their own wrong doing or opposition from pressure groups they refused to lobby. However, Procter and Gamble is currently ranked 6th out of 50 in the world's most admired companies (CNN, 2009c).

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ECONOMIC CRISIS

Everyone is aware of the current global economic crisis, with business organizations even more so. The issue of how business organizations will fare with respect to their corporate social responsibility, therefore, comes to mind. Will their social responsibility agendas be sliced; will they continue at a slow and steady pace or carry on at their desired pace so as to meet their goals? According to a report on CNN, corporations pay attention to social responsibility like never before despite the financial crisis. Some are reducing their spending in other areas of their business operations so that they can fulfil their corporate social responsibility agenda. The same report makes mention of Wal-Mart, Intel, General Electric and PricewaterhouseCoopers as corporations striving to sustain and increase their social commitments regardless of the crisis (CNN, 2009a). The senior vice president for Social Research and Policy at Calvert Group mentioned in the CNN money report that “corporate social responsibility is a nearly recession-proof commitment because it's become so mainstream” (CNN, 2009a). The group president and CEO of Aron Cramer also agrees that the global financial crisis has had little effect on CSR. He states that “this recession is wiping away a lot of things, but so far corporate social responsibility seems to be a survivor” (CNN, 2009a). From the statements above, it is fair to say that Corporate Social Responsibility is here to stay irrespective of the economic situation or any other unforeseen situations.

As mentioned before, Procter and Gamble Company is one of the most admired companies in the world. In a report by CNN, the company is yet to feel the impact of the recession compared to other companies in its league. The report states that “the downturn is even boosting sales for some of its lines: As women cut back on pricier department-store beauty products, for example, they're buying more of P&G's more affordable drugstore Cover Girl and Olay brands” (CNN, 2009c). The fact that the company's sales have increased, in spite of the economic crisis implies that it continues to possess the resources to implement its CSR agenda. If the situation were different, the company capacity to carry out its CSR activities would have been severely compromised. In summary because of the fact that it has being business as usual for the company, it is easy for them to continue with their plans irrespective of the financial situation around the world.

The selected companies are yet to acknowledge the impact of the global financial crisis on their environmental corporate social responsibility agenda if any at all. It is likely that the companies are thriving well as some FMCG products are indispensable and as such the probability of having remarkably low sales is quite unlikely.

In sum, it is easy for the selected FMCG companies to continue with their proposed environmental CSR agenda since it is being business as usual for them, and sales and profit have pretty much being steady. Also considering that some of the scheduled environmental CSR activities are on-going, it is quite unlikely that the companies will want to terminate the implementation of such projects midway. The overall impact of the recession on companies' environmental CSR agenda might come to play in a couple of years after set CSR goals have been attained. Time will tell if other environmental activities will be taken up or if the environmental CSR fund budgeted by the companies will be cut, and if such an action will be as a result of the recession.

CHAPTER 5
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION
5.1 RECOMMENDATION

From the findings of this research work, the following recommendations have been made by the author in order to enhance the cause of environmental corporate social responsibility within companies in the FMCG industry and also future research work in this area.

The author of this research work is of the opinion that the government should set up laws and standards on environmental CSR for each industry in the manufacturing sector. They should be group-based, taking account of the products they manufacture; the average amount of emissions, and the natural resources used (water) etc, and a specified baseline should be agreed on. This is because the use of general standardization makes it difficult to determine those who are performing better than othes within the classification of companies. For example, a policy should be formulated for all tobacco companies. This will increase the commitment of the companies to environmental corporate social responsibility as they will be competing with each other in the same business sector.

Chief executive officers, policy makers, managers etc in charge of making laws in the FMCG industry should formulate policies and guidelines which are expected of them from all of its stakeholders. In other words, the contributions of stakeholders should be solicited and encouraged in the decision making process and formulation of policies within the industry that relates to the environment.

In sum, this author of this research work has identified some areas where further research can be carried out with regard to corporate social responsibility and the environment and also is interested in contributing to the body of work already started. The author recommends a comparison of the environmental corporate social responsibility activities of the companies during and after the recession. A critical analysis and review of their contributions to the society and the impact of their business operations should be carried out. Questions related to the overall impact of the global recession on environmental corporate social responsibility agendas/goals and the effect of the recession on environmental corporate social responsibility activities should be measured; factors that facilitate the choice of particular benchmarking indices over the others etc should be asked. The prospective researcher should not limit data collection to only secondary data collection method; in fact, a wide range of primary data collection methods should be taken into consideration so as to get first hand information. A longitudinal study is recommended in other to get a range of data spanning several years, so that proper comparison and analysis can be carried out. Structured interview and self-completion questionnaires are recommended in order to enhance the validity of the research findings.

5.2 LIMITATION OF THE DISSERTATION

The author recognizes the lack of time (in conducting a longitudinal study) and the inaccessibility of relevant data as the main constraints faced in the course of conducting this piece of research work. This has affected the data collection method.

The validity of this research was work was limited by the gathering of data relating to the selected companies environmental corporate social responsibility activities from just one source (company reports) which might have been tailored to appeal to stakeholders. On the other hand, conducting this research by making use of a mix of primary and secondary data collection methods would have provided a more up-to-date and valid research.

In the course of carrying out this research, accessibility of data was a major problem as the companies were not ready to give out useful information other than that provided on the company's website. This might have been as a result of the company's data protection policy.

5.3 SUMMARY

This research work involved examining the environmental corporate social responsibility practices in three selected FMCG companies. The aim of the research work, research objectives, scope and limitation of study were highlighted. The study also provided a detailed literature review of the area of study and a brief introduction of the manufacturing sector, the FMCG industry and the profile of the selected companies. Data gathered on the amount of waste produced, water used, emission produced and total energy used by the selected companies were analysed to determine the level of selected companies' environment CSR practices. The progress they have made compared to the previous year which was used as the baseline year was highlighted. In a cross sectional analysis, the relative percentage amount of water used, emissions produced, total energy used and waste produced were calculated for each company and the baseline was 1million units of product.

Although it is believed that businesses exist for the sole aim of making profits and maximizing profits, the selected companies have formulated significant plans and goals toward carrying out environmental CSR activities. This might be cost saving for the companies or even costly for them but, the bone of contention in this research work has been to determine whether corporations take up environmental corporate social responsibility activities, the level to which they are taken, the goals that have they set with respect to carrying out environmental corporate social responsibility, the desired outcomes and how they have gone about achieving them.

From the cases mentioned in this research work, it has been seen that even though organizations carry out environmental corporate social responsibility activities, if their business operations are presumed to have negative effects on the environment or society at large, their CSR efforts will be rubbished. British American Tobacco PLC is a good example of an organization striving to be socially responsible but manufactures products that adversely affect the lives of the people, the environment and the society at large (through littering cigarette stalks, deforestation, pollution etc). As a result, BAT continually faces criticisms from action groups and some stakeholders.

5.4 CONCLUSION

Even though corporate social responsibility is yet to have a universal definition, it has not stopped organizations from engaging in some form of social responsibility activities. In recent times corporate social responsibility commitments have become very popular within organizations. These are taking up social responsibilities at different levels, including responsibility to the people, environment and the society at large.

With the ongoing campaigns on ways of saving the climate and planet, organizations have designed ways of making sure that their business operations do not contribute to the degradation of the environment and the fast changing climate. This they have done in various ways, including the reduction of water used in business operations, monitoring the amount of emissions (carbon) produced from the large sophisticated machineries made use of, reducing the waste produced in carrying out their business operations and generally reducing the total energy used by the organizations.

The Independent (2009) Corporate social responsibility is vital for business survival, Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sustainit/corporate-social-responsibility-is-vital-for-business-survival-1640429.html [Accessed: 30/07/09]

World Business Council on Sustainable Development (2000) Corporate Social Responsibility: Making Good Business Sense, Available: www.wbcsd.org [Accessed: 23/06/2009]

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